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Prof. François Duret 
Academician (ANCD) Docteur d’État (Médecine/BH)
DDS, DSO-PhD1, BsH, MS, MD-PhD2,
Many photos and illustrations are available in the image box accessible for everyone on the Contact Page
Welcome to my new 2022 Website … always very personal.
To meet the requests that are made to me regularly, it seemed easier to update my personal 2009 website dedicated to my work. Everyone will be able to draw freely the information he wants and that can be useful to him.
Science belongs to all, it is with great pleasure and honour that I leave you free to copy, copy and photograph … what you want, but … be kind enough in the name of our scientific ethics, not to forget the author!
These queries or requests for documents from many countries around the world, you will find them in French and often translated into English (or vice versa).
As an introduction, and before discussing the map of this website, here is a shortcut of my career path.
“French dentist and biochemist, clinician, university professor and industrialist, winner of the Schweitzer Prize (in 2018)”
« Dividing my time between sport and passion for paleontology, it is by thinking of becoming professor of geology at the Faculty of Sciences of Dijon that my life will change in 1967 following the meeting with my professor of Chemistry G Watelle. Thanks to her, I discovered quantum physics and special relativity. This world of Einstein, Schrödinger, Planck and other Eisenberg will push me to build and consider differently the foundations of what will be our new dentistry.
After Dijon, I continued my graduate studies in Lyon and then in Tours. It was at this time that I met my wife Elisabeth, a doctor in dentistry, who has supported me for 50 years and with whom we will have 3 children (Fabien Véronique and Jonathan).
Then began a very complex period of scientific and dental studies. This dual curriculum has led to merging my thoughts on the thermodynamics of quantum systems and the necessary digitization of the information that dentists are working on. As early as Christmas 1970 it seemed to me that this was the way to open our profession to the physics of the modern world: it will be described in my thesis entitled «optical impression» in 1973. It will take 1985, 15 years, for me to prove it.
Diploma of dental surgeon in pocket I open a dental office in the country and begin medical studies in section of research in gastroenterology (Human Biology). These studies will lead me to a PhD and especially to collaborate with two professors very important in my life: J. Dumas and J. Thouvenot. At the Faculty of Sciences, the first introduced me in 1969 to Laser and then to Holography while the second in the Faculty of Medicine guides my first steps in image processing, Cad and Cam machining techniques
In 1976, I wanted to join the university and got the position of Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and undertook research in virology (awarded with a first national research prize in 1980) without abandoning my development in Artificial Intelligence. To digitize the dental world, this work will move from Laser interferometry to Moiré no-coherent radiation and my point modelling on Bézier surfaces. This research will earn me to be excluded from the University of Lyon in 1980 for «dispersion». This freedom acquired involuntarily will allow me to devote myself totally to the work begun in 1970.
… then comes the great Hennson period and inventions (1980-1993):
In 1980, the possibility of using the first Thomson CCD (manufactured 30 km from my dental office) paved the way for the development of the first Intra Oral Scanner (IOS) described in Tours in 1976. I set up a small team that will become the Hennson company around JP Hennequin, G Déchelette and JL Blouin.
During this period, during congresses, we present the first dental CadCam devices known in the world: in the form of a functional model between 1982 and 1984 and then real prototypes. With this system we were able to realize in public and live, at the Paris congress of the ADF of 1985, the first crown in the world by optical imprint and Artificial Intelligence/CadCam in the mouth of my wife. This prosthesis will be designed and manufactured with Matra Datavison’s first known multiview IOS intraoral scanner with profilometry phase structured light, Euclid volumetric modelling and micro-milling machine with a multi-tools specially designed for dentistry by Kuhlmann then the SA Lambert.
It is this crucial step that will make me declare at the congress «I am not ashamed to say that I invented this technology, because after having described it in 1970, as any scientist must do, I have demonstrated it today and especially in public (in 1985)». This period will be followed by the production of about 80 CadCam unit devices (between 1986 and 1993), of which 61 will be sold.
Come at the same time and then a multitude of my inventions still used today: the first digital CCD-XR-RVG (1982-84) the first virtual articulator and facial arch to perfectly and dynamically adjust the occlusion to these digital prostheses (1984-89), the first 3D structured heterogeneous composites reproducing the dental structure (1986) that will lead to the first carbon and fiberglass (with my uncle Bernard and RTD), the first software for inlays and bridges in occlusion (1984-88), prostheses added by additive manufacture or orthodontic treatments (1989). The first implants were modelled with post (1989) and titanium cupping in the late 1980s (1990-93). To this should be added the work to automatically analyze the color of the teeth (1987) developed with JM Decaudin leading to a new method of makeup of the prostheses (1989) which will be taken up by Japanese.
… followed by the desert of solitude and then The Renaissance (1994-2008):
Becoming a professor in the USA in 1989, the disappearance in 1994 of the Hennson/Sopha company that developed and financed my work sounded the death knell of French supremacy in the world of digital dentistry. It was a period of desert and solitude of more than 5 years. During these difficult years, I was able to contribute to the development of a 3rd system in Japan (the GN1 of GC, Hitachi and Nikon) where I taught and another one in Canada.
In France I created my own research company in 1994 (SED then SEDR) on the basis of one of my new inventions: development of the first fast Plama/LED polymerization (a very big success worldwide), increasing the taking of composites in the mouth from 80 seconds to 8 seconds. This product brought me closer to the French leader of the time, Acteon, and allowed the development of an innovative method of active teeth whitening (2004-2008)
The Return to Optical Impreession (2008-2022)
In 2009 I decided to relaunch my work, never really stopped, on the optical footprint and gives courses on the subject in Montpellier since 1999. Thus, the first Condor stereoscopic intraoral scanner (IOS) without structured light derived from Toulouse space technologies (CNES) was presented with V Querbes in 2015. This new generation of device was going to change the world of intraoral scanners.
The 2020s will be the culmination of this work thanks to my daughter-in-law Aurore Duret-Fournier. They are about to finally see the famous optical imprint holder (IOT) of Invi’sart, an essential element in the digitization of dental data. This final step definitively eliminates the use of all imprint pasta and brings dentistry fully into the modern world as described in my 1970 thesis, 52 years earlier. »
In this spirit, let’s come to the overall plan of my new site:
1- The first page of this site opens on the 8 p.m. television news, November 30, 1985.
Then you will find the 4 classic themes of a website for those who want to know me quickly.
a – A first part reserved for Curriculum Vitae (CV) short (1 pages) and classic (2 pages)
b – A second part, a summary of my work:
. A 5-page summary of my activity as an inventor in Medical Artificial Intelligence
. A table of the most representative dates.
. A selection of 24 publications then 12 representative publications
c – A third part, reserved for my confraternal and private relations :
. My 12 most engaged interviews.
. A list of tributes from my colleagues (Awards, Presidencies, societies and reading committees)
d – The last presents my academic, hospital and country dental career.
2 – The second part presents my inventions more vividly:
a – Obviously my 1973 thesis in French on Digital dentsitry and CadCam (photocopy of the original version presented in 1973) and its translation in English.
b – A 20-page commentary updating it and explaining the basis and context of its writing
c – A quick 5-pages description of my patents.
d – A complete submission of each patent filed (1980 – 2018).
Importants draw from my 1973 Thesis (DDS)
3 – The third part of my 356 publications:
a – Chronological from 1973 to 2021.
b – Following 12 themes ranging from CFAO to Viral Infections, rapid polymerization, materials or occlusion …
c – Specific to the books and theses I have participated in.
d – Selective, highlighting 66, 28 and finally 12 publications that I find interesting, representative or essential.
4 – The fourth part relates to my 536 conferences listed here:
a – We obviously find the chronological listing of these 536 conferences made all over the world.
b – More interesting is the video part where you can see, as at the time, what my most important presentations were. This is very important testimony because it proves the reality of the work we were doing. We are far from the beautiful uncontrollable articles : it is on the spot. Lying is impossible.
5 – The fifth part is a listing of 800 Press articles about my work
a – For each period, you have a brief comment to remind us of the context in which the journalist was.
b – The 800 items are the ones I was able to identify. There were many more, especially abroad or I had no correspondent.
c – Subscribed to Academia since February 2020, I was able to note that I am named in about 300 publications per year in the scientific journals listed in their references.
6 – Finally, the last part gives the reference that allows you to reach me.
For reasons of tranquility, you will only find my postal and geographical address in France.